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It's the same quote that can be found on the official site's front page. "Who is the deceased?"

So if it's Mei the answer is obvious.
If it isn't then I've got no idea

I was tempted by a crazy "Kouichi is in fact named Sakakibara Misaki" theory where Kouichi is the ghost and everyone is pretending he exists,but that really is too far out there.Still I see no other candidates beside Mei.

I was tempted by a crazy "Kouichi is in fact named Sakakibara Misaki" theory where Kouichi is the ghost and everyone is pretending he exists,but that really is too far out there.Still I see no other candidates beside Mei.

As much as this doesn't fit most of what happens, it's a seductive thought. I like it because it would turn certain scenes on their heads. Stuff like his brush with death, the rest of the school not being straight with him, even the class rep's inquisitive "are you sure you've haven't lived here before?"

This isn't a speculation of "What's Going to Happen?" so much as it's a speculation of what might be causing the curse.

Perhaps Mei Misaki maintains a shadowy level of existence by absorbing "life energy" from the people around her. At a "ghost-level" existence, this simply requires sapping people's energy and vitality.

But the more corporeal/"real" she becomes, the more "life energy" she needs to sustain herself. At a certain point, she has to absorb so much life energy that it kills people.

If people ignore Mei, then all that results is sickness and generally poor health. But if people start seeing Mei, she becomes more "real", which in turn puts greater demand on "life energy".

Now, why is Kouichi immune to this? That I'm not sure of. Maybe he's related to Mei somehow, which gives him a level of immunity?

But the more corporeal/"real" she becomes, the more "life energy" she needs to sustain herself. At a certain point, she has to absorb so much life energy that it kills people.
If people ignore Mei, then all that results is sickness and generally poor health. But if people start seeing Mei, she becomes more "real", which in turn puts greater demand on "life energy".

A couple of things that can back this up.

Mei from episode 3:

"Dolls are hollow you see(...)But hollow things seek to fill their emptiness."

And I got this observation from the random curiosity blog: the episode titles "rough sketch; blueprint; bone work; put flesh; next week, build limbs." seem to imply the creation of a human/person.

Based on what I've seen thus far, Mei seems to either be a ghost, or everyone is denying her existence and once they do acknowledge her existence, then they're the one's going to die next. For example, Yukari died right after seeing Mei with Kouichi. The other instance would be when the nurse acknowledged the existence of Mei by researching about her.

Now Kouichi is actively acknowledging her existence might have already raised a death flag, but at the start of the series, he had already been involved in an accident. So he might have avoided being part of the deaths of April and thus became 'immune' so to speak. Since he had avoided death, he can see Mei without any fear for his well being.

The only hole I see in my theory thus far (aside from the fact if my theory should be proven wrong) is if the realization of Mei is connected to Yukari's mother's death. Does one need to acknowledge her and those related to that person who has thus acknowledged her existence would then have the chance of dying? That's something I'm not quite sure of thus yet.

I could of course be totally wrong and I'm only making crap based on what little I've seen thus far...

About Mei's deceased cousin, there are some questions. To begin with, is she really Misaki's cousin? Or did she use that line to divert Sakakibara's attention from something even worse?
Second, if she is Misaki's cousin, then why hasn't the class considered the "curse" to have begun already? Or had their countermeasures set in motion already, only to be derailed by Sakakibara and his noseyness.
Third, one way Fujioka's death won't count is if there's really no Misaki Mei in class 3-3. Therefore, her death is not related to anyone in the class.
So, once again, it all turns on, does "Misaki Mei" really exist?

Second, if she is Misaki's cousin, then why hasn't the class considered the "curse" to have begun already? Or had their countermeasures set in motion already, only to be derailed by Sakakibara and his noseyness.

Well, we can see according to the class chart that there is no Fujioka Misaki in class 3-3. We also know that she has a different name from Misaki Mei and even if Mei is alive nobody would make a direct connection from that.
It's also mentioned that the curse is said to target dominantly class members and direct family (to be exact it said 親兄弟 (oyakyoudai), which is parents and direct siblings), so even if anybody knew about them being cousins they probably wouldn't draw a direct relation.

About Mei's deceased cousin, there are some questions. To begin with, is she really Misaki's cousin? Or did she use that line to divert Sakakibara's attention from something even worse?
Second, if she is Misaki's cousin, then why hasn't the class considered the "curse" to have begun already? Or had their countermeasures set in motion already, only to be derailed by Sakakibara and his noseyness.
Third, one way Fujioka's death won't count is if there's really no Misaki Mei in class 3-3. Therefore, her death is not related to anyone in the class.
So, once again, it all turns on, does "Misaki Mei" really exist?

If Misaki Mei exists and they are just ignoring her, how would they know that her cousin died? It seems like for them she *dosn't exist* but all connected to her dose not exist aswell.
As for teachers... well, for them it's a little different. Even if they would pretend that *there is no Misaki Mei student*, she still will be in class student's list. Well, IF she really exists.

Oh wow, nice one. I agree with orion's idea that the episode titles seem to refer to the step-by-step creation of a doll or some kind of other artificial being. I skimmed through episodes 1 to 4, and I didn't notice anything that coincides with the titles except for some rather insignificant things. In episode 1, we saw Mei drawing something that she refused to show to the protagonist. It's common sense that everything starts off with a 'rough sketch'. In episode 2, we were shown Mei's drawing, and it since it was pretty neatly drawn, so I guess it could be considered a 'blueprint'. The only noteworthy things that occurred in episode 3 and 4 were the deaths of the class rep and the nurse. We havenít heard anything about funerals or their bodies being buried; perhaps whoever is behind this used the flesh and bone from their bodies? Or maybe the episode titles should be taken figuratively and not literally?

I've been thinking if it's possible that the dolls are actually puppets? All they dolls we've seen so far seem to have movable joints. So if the dolls are puppets, then would be it be safe to assume that some of the dolls are being controlled by a puppet master from behind the scenes? And on that note, I wonder if the puppet master has control over Mei because of her doll eye? What if whatever entity is killing off the people is toying with their 'strings' of fate? It would explain the seemingly accidental deaths.

I love Another, it reminds me very much of Higurashi, Umineko and Final Destination. That said, I have a personal theory of what is going on in the show, as of viewing of Episode 4.

Spoiler for Personal Crack Theory from Epi 1-4:

Misaki Mei is real. (i.e she exists in the physical world)
The "curse" existed in the past, but is currently brought to life by an unknown perpetrator for a currently unknown purpose.
Kouichi and Mei are descendants of the original pair in the "curse".

NOTE: I lean very heavily towards the "Misaki Mei exists" theory in part because of the scene where Mei is seen in a mirror. It seems unlikely that in a horror show that something as cliched as "ghosts can't be seen in a mirror" would be omitted when the writer was making the draft.

NOTE2: I refer to "curse" as the incident that occurred 26 years ago. The entire thing, whatever it is.

Like the others who have proposed the theory that Mei exists, but everyone is ignoring her. I think that theory is sound, except for the part where she is a ghost/manifestation of the curse. First of all, people can see Mei. They just pretend not to. Note the reactions of Kouichi's classmates whenever he tries to run off to the rooftops or to see Mei. It is always a pained/startled reaction. Refer to Epi 2, where from a third person'a point of view, Mei is clearly in view. Not so much because they think Kouichi is befriending a ghost, but because he was trying to associate with someone associated with bad luck.

The only evidence for this is that Mei's name contains the name "Misaki". It is the same name of the student that died 26 years ago. As such, students of Class 3 shun her because her very existence in the class is an ominous sign of the "curse" returning. This explains Mei's comment about how she "doesn't exist", because metaphorically speaking, in the eyes of Class 3, she is nothing but a living wraith, and to deny her existence would be in the best interests of everybody. Both Mei and the rest of Class 3 are preventing a repeat of the same circumstances that formed the "curse" 26 years ago.

I got this idea from Epi 1 where someone said that Class 3 "associates your (Kouichi) name with death".

It is entirely possible that his family, who have been proven to attend YK School for three generations (Mother, Aunt, Kouichi), is innately connected with the "curse". I theorize that the Sakakibara family, being outsiders, have a bad tendency to break from the conformist nature of the town, and ask "why". This is in reference to Kouichi's conversation with his aunt where she rages at how the parrot keeps asking "why", and her advice that the "group" is more important than the "individual" in this town.

Building on this theory, I kind of get the feeling that there is some deep connection between Mei and Kouichi. After their first meeting at the dollhouse, there is a short scene with two friends talking about how both of them are "stuck" with each other. Using the same language that Mei uses nonetheless. If I were to take that conversation metaphorically, it seems to refer to Mei and Kouichi's relationship, where Kouichi does not know anything about Mei, but Mei seems to know everything about him. I theorize that this connection is that the boy who declared that "Misaki exists" 26 years ago is in fact someone from the "Sakakibara" family. This explains why people are afraid of Kouichi, and keep questioning him about his birth. Mei knows this, and in order to distance herself from the "curse", and Kouichi being socially isolated like she is, she tries to distance herself from him.

Of course, there's a gigantic monkey wrench in my theory because of the entire "doll" motif. I think I'm thinking too two-dimensionally about this, because if Mei is really a spirit, then why bother with the doll motif? And how does one explain the stiffness of Kouichi's classmates both when they visit him, and when he introduces himself to his class. There is a gigantic difference in style if you rewatch the first two times that they are presented. Their limbs are stiff and unnatural, as if they were dolls. Then there's the creepy old lady who owns the doll shop, who repeats the exact same lines twice when Kouichi visits her shop, again, the doll motif. Not one bit of human nature in them. Could it be possible that the entire town is dead, and are just dolls? Then who is controlling them? I don't get the connection between the supernatural and the doll motif at this point, so I have no idea.

Very soon, people will die mysteriously. Unseen by anyone of course. This is an established fact of horror shows. I contend that the first cute girl's death was merely a coincidence. Someone will start prepertrating murders for an unknown purpose, and try to pin the blame on Kouichi. Why anyone would do this, I don't know. The closest to a suspect I can find is the black haired guy who likes the tsundere red-haired girl. Maybe he's killing people because he doesn't want her to go to Tokyo, and is jealous that Kouichi will be in close proximity to her? I don't know, it's probably a minor detail that I am exaggerating here.

Unsolved Mysteries

What happened 26 years ago?
What happened 15 years ago when Kouichi's aunt was at the school?
Does Mei really exist?
What is Mei and Kouichi's true connection to the incident 26 years ago?
What purpose does the "countermeasure" division serve?
What is the use of the "doll" motif in the show?